Newcastle United manager Alan Pardew has targeted a place in Europe for his team after they defeated Queens Park Rangers on Sunday afternoon.
Three points against Mark Hughes’ new team meant that Newcastle moved above Liverpool into 6th place as things stand. They are also level on points with Arsenal who currently occupy 5th position and the final automatic European place.
Referring to the targets for the remainder of the season, Pardew said: “If we can manage to get a couple more wins when the boys are away and they can come back and give us a boost, who knows what we can achieve.”
“But we will never take our eye off things. We are not that naive. We are sixth and that’s not just the result today but through 21 games.”
“We are above Liverpool who have fantastic players. It’s amazing we have got where we are.”
The victory over QPR was significant for another reason too. It was the first time Newcastle have had to cope without influential midfielder Cheick Tiote and leading goalscorer Demba Ba after they left for African Cup of Nations duty.
Leon Best stepped up for the goal though to show that Pardew’s men can kick on without two of their best players. The Newcastle boss also reserved praise for talented midfielder Hatem Ben Arfa.
Speaking about the Frenchman, he said: “Hatem made a difference when he came on. He gave us a bit of flair and exuberance.”
“Hatem is becoming a force here. You can see him growing as we are growing. He’s starting to manoeuvre his way into the first team.”
Next up for Pardew and Newcastle is a Premier League trip to Fulham this weekend before an FA Cup tie against Brighton or Wrexham the following weekend.
In both of these games, they will be hoping for more and more players to step up their performances as Newcastle look to live up to gradually increasing expectations for the rest of the season.
